Letters

February 10, 2008

Knight an excellent coach but falls short as human being

While I'll readily admit that Bob Knight was an excellent college basketball coach, he was a surly, bitter and often repugnant human being. Any university who hired him as a coach knew it would have to unfortunately deal with the whole package. Just be ready to cringe when Knight became unhinged.

He could easily be goaded into explosive acts of inexplicable tantrums. Role model? Hardly. A hard-nosed no nonsense coach, sure, but he had an immature, churlish persona to trump his coaching abilities.

I can never forgive him for his sometimes despicable "my way or the highway" approach toward the young men who played for him, some of whom whose lives he had the occasion to make miserable.

Patrick R. Lynch

Baltimore

Orioles fans left without cheer -- and players to cheer for

What are the Orioles thinking? Since their last World Series, the Orioles have produced few homegrown All-Stars.

Mike Mussina left the frustration of losing for New York's big bucks, and now the Orioles have traded one of the other two, Erik Bedard, and might also deal Brian Roberts. We might get good players in return, but they are imports who will move on at the next contract.

To sustain an interest in the team, fans have to be able to root for a player who will stay. In the bleak years of the late 1980s, the Orioles could have discarded loyalty and traded Cal Ripken for several good hired bats, but they thankfully didn't.

The players have to be someone fans can cheer for, not commodities to be sold like stocks.